


The Evil Among Us

by frankzhang



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Among Us (Video Game) Setting, Alternate Universe - Space, Betrayal, Gen, Murder Mystery, The Skeld (Among Us), Trust Issues, but just. let it happen, i swear this started out as a joke, then i got too serious about it, this is exactly what you think it is, ur favs probably gna die, yes i feel bad abt killing them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:41:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26643151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankzhang/pseuds/frankzhang
Summary: Percy Jackson doesn't know how the day went all wrong. But seeing a body on the floor on his way to check the ship's wiring was definitely not on his daily agenda.OR: what would happen if the pjo/hoo characters were thrown into the Among Us game?
Comments: 9
Kudos: 26





	The Evil Among Us

**Author's Note:**

> "We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less.  
> There is good and evil among every kind of people.  
>  **It's the evil among us who rule now.** "  
>    
> – Anne Bishop  
>    
> _do_ **not** _forget that this is just a game. it may be hard to remember that._  
> 

Percy hadn’t expected anything out of the ordinary that day.

The days on the spaceship were a blur most of the time. Ever since he and nine other people had applied and were chosen for a space exploration project, they were all stuck doing menial tasks to keep the ship running until NASA called them back down. The response from NASA had been delayed for another month. Again.

It’s safe to say that sometimes Percy gets bored out of his mind just floating in space.

Only, never to the point of actual murder. 

So as he greeted the crew in the cafeteria and grabbed an apple while sitting down at a table beside them, Percy never thought anything was wrong. It’s all so routine now. From waking up to talking with friends he made while being on board, to doing his tasks, to them eating together, to going back to sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat. And Percy continued his day.

That’s why when Percy noticed the body of his first friend, Luke, right inside the storage room, he stood frozen in place. His brain short-circuited and his body refused to move. He didn’t even realize he had fallen to his knees until one of his crewmates, Annabeth, rounded the corner.

She looked at him curiously and asked, “Percy? What’s up?” She touched his arm and tried to pull him back up. “Percy, can you hear-”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Annabeth glance to where he had been staring. He couldn’t blame the cry that left her. He wanted to scream too. His throat had completely closed to the point where he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Annabeth ran to Luke’s side, dragging him with her to the body. But Percy just wanted to look away, to stop hearing Annabeth sobbing their friend’s name.

“Percy,” Annabeth gasped. “Percy, help me get him to med-bay.” She tried to lift Luke’s weight on her own. “Percy, _please.”_

He knew better though. Luke was gone. Luke had been gone the minute Percy saw him.

“Annabeth…”

“It’s okay, we- we can still help him. We can just scan his vitals and, and…” She faltered and her face contorted, as if she couldn't deny that nothing could be done anymore.

The blood of their fallen friend had soaked into the knees of their spacesuits by then.

Her voice was nearly inaudible. “What are we going to do, Percy…”

He looked around the room and spotted a sheet to wrap the body with. They agreed on calling a meeting to tell the others about what happened. Maybe discussing with the crew would allow them all to think rationally on what to do with the body and a murderer on board. Percy carried Luke in his arms while Annabeth walked mindlessly behind him, both of them forgetting to wipe away the streaks their tears left.

Jason saw them first. Percy knew that sometimes Jason had work to do in the Admin room, so neither he nor Annabeth were surprised when Jason did a double-take as they walked past him. It didn’t take an expert to know that the red-stained sheet Percy was carrying wasn’t a new rug.

Their friend ran to hit the emergency meeting button in the cafeteria to save them from the walk and helped Percy set the body down. Gracelessly falling onto the chairs of the nearest table, Percy and Annabeth sat next to each other, staring beyond the metal walls of the ship.

As the others slowly began to gather, Jason worriedly watched over them. He gave them water and asked them to drink as they watched him subtly examine who the body belonged to. It wasn’t hard for Jason to deduce once the blond hair was visible.

Leo walked in with an arm wrapped around Hazel and Nico and opened his mouth to greet everyone when he sensed the sullen mood and scanned the room. All eyes landed on the body at the foot of the table.

The whole crew decided to remain standing.

Annabeth opened her mouth but nothing came out, and she just bowed her head to cover her face with her hair. Jason put a comforting hand on her shoulder and silently asked Percy to speak instead.

Clearing his throat, Percy said hoarsely, “We found Luke’s body in Storage. Neither of us knew how- we didn’t know how- Luke was just-” He stopped himself to catch his breath. “Luke is dead. Annabeth and I don’t know what we should do.”

They all looked at one another, unsure how they should approach the subject of disposing of the body of their fallen friend.

“Percy.” He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Jason looking down at him sympathetically. “We don’t know either... This is a shock to all of us.” There was a ripple of nods from the rest of the crew. “What do you want to do?”

Annabeth spoke up, her face void of the emotion she had just shown. “I wanted to properly honor him with a funeral.” She glances at everyone in the room slowly. “But we don’t have any time for that. Someone on this ship is guilty of this and I won’t sleep until I know who.”

Piper inhaled sharply at Annabeth’s accusation. “Annabeth, you don’t actually think one of us…” She was met with a blank stare.

“I know it is.”

Percy touched her arm. He knew that Annabeth and Luke were close before this project began, but it was too soon for her to point any fingers. “Hey-”

“No, Percy. You saw his body. You saw the _open wound_ on his _back._ Luke was stabbed and this was no accident.”

She waited for someone to deny the facts. No response came. Percy noticed that the distance between his fellow crewmates increased. Suddenly, the atmosphere tensed and they all looked among each other. It felt suffocating.

“Let’s wrap him properly for burial and set him outside,” Reyna proposes, attempting to cut the tension. They all looked at her, but she didn’t crumble at the weight of their stares. “After we put Luke to rest, we can properly discuss before pointing fingers.”

Annabeth opened her mouth to counter her when Jason cut her off softly.

“She’s right... We can give Luke the closest thing we can to a funeral, then we can gather whatever evidence there is to talk rationally about this.”

When she reluctantly agreed, the meeting was adjourned and they all set off in their own directions once again.

Percy went to change, only to sit in the showers and stare at the tiles for an hour. Piper and Hazel offered to help Annabeth rewrap Luke’s body in a clean sheet and hugged her whenever Annabeth’s resolve cracked during the process. Frank and Jason went to clean up the storage room as much as they could, scrubbing at the floors and throwing away bloody rags and suits off the ship using the garbage chute.

Reyna had set out to find an airtight opening that was big enough to dispose of a body without harming the rest of the crew while Nico and Leo just watched their crewmates do mind-numbing tasks, trying to alleviate the crime they all found themselves in.

* * *

Leo nudged Nico with his arm. Nodding to one of the corridors, he said, “Let’s go look for some clues.”

“...Clues.”

He rolled his eyes at the deadpan reply. “Yes, clues. We need to find things that can incriminate someone for Luke’s murder.” Leo took his wrist and began walking them towards the Admin room.

Nico held him back and pulled himself away. “Leo, you can’t treat this like another one of the games you play to pass the time. Not right now. Someone just got killed.”

He couldn’t pretend to not be a little bit hurt at that. “I’m fully aware that this isn’t a game anymore, Nico. If you don’t want to help me, then fine. Go do something else.” Leo huffed and went to turn away. “Why don’t you just help Percy out of the showers…”

Roughly, he was pulled back by his crewmate and was given a harsh glare. _“Stop it.”_ Nico dropped his arm. He hesitated before continuing, “Look, I’m sorry for saying that you think it’s a game. I know you don’t… We’re all just on edge. I’ll- I’ll help you out.”

After studying him for a second, Leo sighed and gestured for him to follow. A moment of stiff silence passed then Leo said, “Sorry about the Percy thing. Shouldn’t have said it.”

“It’s whatever.” Nico shrugged halfheartedly. “It was at the beginning of this whole space thing anyway. I’m over it.”

“Still, I should have-”

The sound of the lights powering down interrupted Leo and the two of them were flooded with darkness. With the emptiness of space and without the ship’s lights in every corner of the ship, no one could see further than two feet in front of them. Even then, seeing right in front of you was a strain on the eyes.

Leo heard Nico swear under his breath. “Leo?”

As he felt blindly beside him, Leo answered with a very confident: “Where’d you go?”

“I think someone is sabotaging the crew.”

Finally feeling the rough fabric of Nico’s suit, he said, “Shit.”

“Yeah, shit…” Leo imagined Nico was thinking up a plan. “Let’s go to Electrical. We can turn it on ourselves, and with any luck, we’ll run into the others on the way.”

“And if we run into the murderer?”

Nico chuckles under his breath humorlessly. “At least we know it’s neither of us. Stay close.”

They blindly walked through the corridors of the spaceship, relying on their muscle memory and their hands to make sure they didn’t run into anything. Leo constantly kept a hand on the back of Nico’s suit, not wanting to be separated – both in fear of himself dying and in fear of not having an alibi in case someone else did.

As they approached the electrical room, Nico bumped into another body. The other person yelped, causing Nico to jump and Leo to yelp back. The lights immediately washed over them and once all their eyes adjusted to the brightness, the crewmates all looked at each other. Leo let go of Nico and observed them.

Percy stood closest to the screen panel that controlled the generator, hair still wet and towel still in his hand. Annabeth and Piper stood side by side, looking skeptical of anything and everything, with Hazel close behind them. Leo figured that they all had bonded back there, but he felt like Hazel didn’t like the energy that the other girls gave off. None of them could exactly blame the two for it. Jason and Frank were the furthest inside of the room, both right next to Percy and covered in blood.

Leo raised an eyebrow at the two as they looked at each other and quickly looked back at the rest of them.

“We can explain,” Frank said.

“Sure you can,” Annabeth coldly replied.

Jason started explaining that he and Frank were cleaning the storage room. “We stayed together and headed to Electrical to try and fix the lights first. When we got here, Percy had already begun.”

Frank backed up Jason’s claim, and as he was going to counter a part of the story, Nico began looking around the room and stopped Frank before he could continue. Leo noticed Nico’s breath quicken before pointing it out.

“Guys, where’s Reyna?” When no one answered him, he left the room and rushed to look for her.

They all glanced at each other before following suit, calling out Reyna’s name and splitting up to search the ship’s abundant rooms. Leo was in the middle of looking in their communications room when he heard a scream echo from the other side of the ship. As he went to find where the sound came from, the sound that calls meetings in the cafeteria goes off. He walked into the room to see a sick-looking Piper standing next to the button as Percy struggled to console her.

Everyone rushed into the cafeteria and gathered around Piper, who Leo assumed called the meeting. Whatever she saw didn’t look like she was happy to share the news.

“S-sorry, I wanted… I wanted to show you where I found Reyna, but she-” Piper choked up and nearly gagged. “Reyna’s body...” she whispered. “I needed to leave the room, I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t stay in that room and just stand-”

Annabeth went over to calm her down, moving Percy and taking Piper aside. “Shh, it’s okay. Hey, it’s okay. You called us all here, Piper, you’re okay.” Glancing apprehensively at the others, she asked, “Can you tell us where you saw her?”

Piper nodded. “Security, with the cameras.”

Jason placed a chair behind Piper and gestured for her to sit before sitting down himself. He sighed. “Reyna was alone. I don’t know how this is even happening.”

While the others followed to sit, Annabeth sat quietly to herself until she announced, “Reyna wasn’t the only one that was all alone.”

Leo straightened in his seat and everyone zeroed in on Percy, who still wasn’t dry from the showers.

When he understood what she was alluding to, Percy was shocked. “Annabeth, you cannot be fucking serious.” Percy gaped at her and turned to the rest of them. “Guys, you don’t actually think that.” The silence that followed told him more than enough. “I was showering the whole time, trying to _mourn Luke.”_

No matter how harsh it sounded, the evidence stacked against Percy wasn’t good and Leo cringed at the thought.

Piper sided with Annabeth and added to Percy’s implication. “You could have showered to wash away the evidence…” she said softly.

He looked offended. “You’re kidding…”

“Do you have anything to show that proves you’re innocent?” Hazel offered but Percy just looks more exasperated.

“Hazel, you _know_ I can’t. Please, I was just _showering._ I didn’t kill Reyna.”

The whole table bristled at the blunt statement, but their hands were tied. There wasn’t anything to show Percy’s innocence and they couldn’t risk anymore lives onboard. As they all looked amongst one another and Percy watched them back and forth, a silent agreement passed between them all.

Percy needed to go.

Jason surveyed the crew one more time before looking at him. “We’re sorry, Percy.”

Leo’s crewmate deflated so comically that in any other situation, he and Percy would laugh at it together. But the humor has been sucked out of the ship like someone had turned off the oxygen.

“What do we do now?” Leo asked since someone had to bite.

Before another silent debate began between them, Nico brusquely stated, “We throw him out with Luke and Reyna.”

All their heads swiveled towards him, followed with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

“Nico, please…” Hazel began.

He shook his head. “No, Hazel. I’m sorry, but do you think I can be all civil and just with someone who killed Reyna?” He turned to Annabeth. “Who may have killed Luke too?”

“What the _hell,_ Nico-” Percy stood from his chair.

Nico stood himself and challenged, “You found Luke’s body before anyone else did, you have no alibis, and you’re telling me you didn’t do anything to Luke _or_ Reyna?”

 _“Yes!_ That’s exactly what I’m telling all of you!” Percy stared at him, hurt at the allegations.

“Then _prove me wrong,”_ Nico demanded.

Leo knew that Nico had him. They all knew it. Percy just closed his eyes and sighed after processing the words. There was nothing he could do.

Pushing away from the table, Nico turned and walked back towards the security room. Before he could get too far, Leo watched as Jason reached for Nico’s arm.

“Where’re you going?”

“I’m going to get Reyna’s body,” Nico said, looking back with a glare. “Reyna doesn’t deserve to stay like that.”

Nico tried to pull away but Jason didn’t release the grip. “I don’t think going anywhere on your own is a good idea.” Leo severely doubted that logic, since Nico clearly wanted to be alone, but he said nothing. “Reyna, Luke, and Percy were all alone. We need to play it safe. For now.”

The scrutiny that Jason received from Nico would have made anyone else break eye contact. A few beats of quiet passed as they stared each other down before Nico huffed.

While Nico pulled away from Jason and mumbled an agreement, Leo cleared his throat to speak. “Okay, so we split up then. Groups of four.”

Jason nodded. “Leo, you and Piper stay with me and Percy. Nico, go to Security with the others. Strength in numbers, right?”

“Until another one of us dies,” Percy murmured under his breath. They all glared at him and he lifted his hands defensively. “It _wasn’t me.”_

They all ignored him and half of them went on their way, while the other half stayed to keep an eye on Percy.

* * *

Hazel followed quietly as Frank and Annabeth led them all to the security room. Nico squeezed her hand and pulled her closer. When they arrived, she averted her eyes and handed the sheets they grabbed from the medical bay to Annabeth. To cover a body herself was something she couldn’t do.

Standing on the opposite side of the room, Hazel regarded Annabeth’s apathetic expression with admiration and concern. The lack of emotion that her friend had been holding since Luke died was worrying and Hazel wanted to ask her if she was really as fine as she appeared.

But as Frank bundled Reyna’s head while Annabeth lifted it, unbothered by the blood dripping from her fingers, Hazel knew that asking something like that wouldn’t seem right anymore.

Nico stood from where he had delicately wrapped Reyna’s lower half and studied the rest of the room. Hazel didn’t know what he was thinking, but he was visibly uncomfortable with the state of the room. It was messier than the room Luke was found in.

Just as she proceeded to walk towards him, Frank called their attention to the far corner of the room. He was crouched over a vent and was fiddling with the loose screws.

He lifted a screw and opened the air vent large enough for someone to crawl through. “I think whoever is doing all of this is using the vents to leave the scene.”

“Makes sense. I never even realized it was an option for us…” Annabeth crouched beside him.

Hazel touched both their shoulders and ignored how Frank wasn’t naming Percy. “Let’s get back to the others. We’ll put Luke and Reyna to rest. Afterward, we can hold another meeting and tell them what we found, okay?”

The walk back to the cafeteria was as harrowing as the walk to the security room. The four of them returned with Frank holding Reyna’s body as he asked where they were going to let them go. Hazel noted that the room wasn’t any less suffocating than when they left while Jason stood to go collect Luke. Jason stated that the garbage chute inside the storage room would have to do, and he led the way. 

They all wearily glanced at Percy and slowly began following. When Percy had reached for his space helmet that they all knew held a tank of oxygen, Nico grabbed his wrist and shook his head.

“Are you fucking-”

Hazel looked back to the two of them falling behind and walked towards them. “Guys, come on…”

“Hazel, he won’t let me take my damn helmet.” Percy yanked his wrist from him. “What the fuck.”

Nico looked like he wanted to say something that wouldn’t help any of them, so Hazel cut him off before a word was said. “Percy, the...process will go faster without a helmet. You don’t want to stay conscious out there any longer than you have to.”

“Jesus, Hazel…” Percy looked at her, pained. Hazel doesn’t blame him. But the decision had been made.

“Forty-five seconds, Percy. That’s all it takes. Just count to thirty and you’ll be asleep. Okay?”

Nico left them to catch up with the others and Hazel took his hand to pull him along. Percy noiselessly walked behind her, conceding himself to be led to the chute that will release him outside. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what Percy was thinking.

As they drew closer to the entrance of the storage room, Percy stopped her and his eyes pleaded with Hazel. He whispered, “Do you really think it was me?”

She didn’t.

All she said was: “I don’t know anymore, Percy.”

* * *

As Jason and Frank placed the bodies as considerately as they could into the chute in the ground, Piper heard Hazel and Percy finally enter the room. She didn’t bother with turning around at them, nervous that she might take back the vote she cast against Percy.

The storage room was scrubbed clean, to the point where you wouldn’t even know that Luke had been lying where they were all standing. Piper wondered whether she would see the blood that had permanently stained the metal if she inspected the floor close enough.

Standing up, Jason looked over to them and asked, “Does anyone...want to say anything?” When only silence followed, he only nodded. “Yeah, there’s nothing we really _can_ say, huh…”

After a few seconds of the sullen silence, Frank moved to the switches that controlled the chute. “I think it’s time, guys.”

Piper thought there was something sick yet fitting about how the garbage chute was the best place to dispose of people who she used to call friends.

The inner hatch was closed and the airlock was enabled. Piper could hear the vacuum that the emptiness of space created when the outer hatch opened. It was over in a matter of seconds, but she felt time drag on as Luke and Reyna were sent to rest with the stars.

When the hatch opened again, it was as if nothing inhumane had happened on the ship at all. The bodies were gone.

All eyes fell onto the empty chute. One by one, their eyes lifted to Percy. He struggled to meet their gazes. Piper watched him open and close his mouth, trying to figure out what he could say to get away from this situation. Hazel kept hold of his hand and led him to the edge of the chute and no words were spoken during the length of their walk together. Piper saw Hazel let him go.

“Just thirty seconds, okay? Just count to thirty, Percy…”

Hazel stepped back from the edge as Percy tried to reach for her again. Her face looked so torn and Piper had to reach for her herself, to give each of them someone to hold and make sure neither of them said anything more.

“Guys, I don’t want to do this. I don't want to get into that.” He gestured to the garbage chute. “I know it looks bad and I know that I can’t just prove I’m innocent, but please, you have to trust me.”

Piper looked away from him. Percy was near tears and she felt her own rolling down her face. She couldn’t watch this happen. Hazel held her a little harder.

Jason placed a hand on his shoulder and sighed, giving Percy a sad expression. “Percy, we can’t trust anyone anymore.” Nodding subtly to Frank, Jason said, “We’re sorry.”

From where she was hiding her face in Hazel’s hair, Piper saw Jason and Frank gently each take Percy’s arm and lead him to the edge from where Percy began walking away. Noticing what the two were doing, Percy started to refrain from moving. Their grip on him tightened and there was a brief struggle before Jason and Frank almost carried him into it. The height of the chute came up to Percy’s chest and attempting to try and climb out could be easily stopped.

“Guys, please,” Percy begged. He looked around the room. “Annabeth. Leo. Come on, I’m asking you to believe me.” A tear fell from his eyes but he quickly brushed it away. _“Hazel,_ please.”

Against her chest, Hazel let out a noise and shook her head. If Piper strained her ears, she could hear Hazel mumbling, _“Thirty seconds, thirty seconds, thirty seconds…”_ like a mantra.

“Percy,” Frank whispered. “I need to close the hatch… Can you kneel down?”

He let out a harsh laugh, but Piper could see how devastated he was to hear that. “Can I kneel down,” Percy echoed. “I don’t know if I actually want to, Frank. Could you tell?”

Annabeth sighed irritably beside Piper. “Unless you want to be cut in half, you would get down.” The tone she gave sounded like she wanted nothing more than Percy gone, but Piper could see that Annabeth couldn’t even face the chute. She was crying silently to herself more than Piper was.

“Because floating around in space with no air is better,” he scoffed. “But it’s just thirty seconds, right, Hazel?”

Hazel sobbed as Percy turned and sat down in the chute.

The heavy burden that hung in the room lessened once Percy was hidden from view. Piper didn’t know whether or not she should feel guilty about feeling that way. Hazel and Annabeth both peeked over their shoulders to see how much of Percy wasn’t visible. Frank closed the inner hatch and enabled the airlock in the chute.

“I’m going to count down, Percy, from five.” A muffled _yeah_ could be heard from beneath them.

Frank got as far as _two_ before Percy started banging against the chute, begging for Frank to wait.

“Wait, Frank, _wait.”_ Percy banged harder and Hazel jumped in Piper’s arms. “Wait, please.” Percy inhaled deeply in the chute, taking in the dwindling oxygen in the metal box. “Just...just let me say some things. Give me one more minute.”

Piper and her crewmates all considered it while looking at one another. Soon, Frank sighed and told Percy, “Okay.”

She heard Percy let go of the breath he was holding, but she couldn’t tell if that was him anticipating their decision or him just trying to save what little air he had left.

“Thank you,” Percy replied. He paused before stating, “I just wanted to say sorry. I don’t really know what I’m apologizing for, but I am anyway…”

Piper fully lifted her head and closed her eyes to listen.

“There’s nothing I can say that will fix all that’s happened to us. I just hope that when I go, it’ll stop. Let me be the last one…” She heard him take another deep breath, yet when he spoke again he sounded breathless. “I’m glad I got to meet all of you… I know I complained a lot about space, but working here has really helped me. You guys are kind of a family to me. Or you guys were, at least. I hope… I hope that at some point you thought I was part of yours too. Sorry it came to this. I’ll miss you guys.”

Percy cleared his throat. Piper opened her eyes to see everyone hiding their own faces.

“Okay, Frank.” He sighed. “I’m ready.”

And the outer hatch opened.

* * *

Nothing happened for a full minute.

Frank didn’t close the hatch, Hazel and Piper didn’t move from each other’s embrace, Annabeth continued to stare a hole through the wall while Nico did the same to the ground, and Leo and Jason stood side by side trying to hide the fact that they had shed some tears at Percy’s words.

Being the first to start moving, Frank addressed them all, suggesting that they all head back to the cafeteria. Eventually, the crew steadily crossed the room and made their way down the corridor. Once the last person sat down at the table, Leo broke the deafening silence.

“What now?” His question was met with a series of blank faces and shrugs.

On Frank’s right, Jason tiredly asked, “Why don’t we just call it a day? We can worry about reassigning the tasks tomorrow. For now, let’s get some rest.”

Jason’s idea was easily agreed upon, and Frank eyed him suspiciously. Ever since the blackout, Frank had been watching him carefully. His fellow crewmate had said that they were together when the lights went out yet failed to mention that he and Frank were separated on the way to the electrical room. By the time Frank arrived, Percy and Jason were already there working to get the lights back up.

It had slipped his mind to mention it again. Now that Jason was telling the others to go about themselves, the thought resurfaced. He wanted to say something, but after their experience with Percy, he held back.

Frank didn’t want to throw someone out without proper reasoning. No one innocent should have to go through what Percy went through.

Everyone began exiting the cafeteria and Frank didn't stop them. He wasn’t going to say anything until he had something to hold against him in the next meeting they called.

With the mess that the ship went through, retracing his steps was more confusing than Frank figured. He decided to start in the storage room, where he and Jason had vigorously rubbed the floor to get rid of the evidence of the misconduct that occurred. Standing on the place he had cleaned on his knees, Frank surveyed the room and slowly moved to the corridor that led to the electrical room. Somewhere between this room and that room, Jason had gone ahead of him and reached the electricity panel first. Frank entered the room and examined the space that he, Percy, and Jason had stood together. Tucked into the corner of the room, right where Jason was standing, was a vent with its screws loose. Identical to the vent that was in the security room.

Frank furrowed his brows and hoped that this vent didn’t have a path to the security room. However, as he entered the vent himself and followed one of the two paths in the vent, he found himself in the very room he did not want to be in. He had circumstantial evidence that Jason had killed Reyna and still had time to get to the electrical room without raising any suspicion due to his task of cleaning the blood and Frank’s inability to convict people.

Running a hand down his face, Frank sighed. He was torn between reporting Jason to the others and finding something more solid. The crew was all probably trying to calm down and coping with the day’s events in their own ways. How was Frank supposed to tell them that they had one more killer left on the ship?

Just as he exited the security room, the red lights began flashing and their emergency alarm for depleting oxygen sounded off. He quickly made his way towards their oxygen room to fix it before their air levels got too low. On the way, the lights decided to go out at the same time, leaving the whole crew in the dark, with fleeting red lights to guide their way. He hoped that someone was going to fix the lights as he rushed to the oxygen room.

During his hurried stumbling through the red darkness, Frank stopped short at the end of the corridor in the room that managed the ship’s space shields. At the other side of the hall, there was a figure climbing out of a vent and when he got closer, the flashes of red reflected in the short blond hair of Jason.

“Jason?” Frank gasped. His crewmate looked at him like a deer caught in headlights. Conveniently, the lights flooded the corridor while Frank and Jason stared each other down.

From behind him, Frank heard steps behind him and he relaxed knowing that he wasn’t alone with Jason. He saw Jason’s eyes flicker to the other person before Jason relaxed himself. 

Frank was about to say his name one more time, confused, before he felt a cool blade enter him in from behind. A hand came up to his neck and gripped it, not enabling his head to even turn and look at the person stabbing him in the back.

Frozen in his place, he watched as Jason walked towards them and patted the person who held the knife that was inside him on the shoulder.

“Thanks,” Jason said lightly, as if this was an everyday conversation. “I’ll make sure no one comes down the hall. Do oxygen for me?”

His partner in crime only scoffed while pulling out the knife and pushing it back in two more times. The death grip on Frank’s neck loosened and he collapsed on the floor. Frank watched boots carefully step over his blood to walk towards the oxygen room.

The last thing he hears is the oxygen alarm turn off just as another meeting was called.

* * *

Jason headed towards the communications room around the corner, catching Leo just as the alarm stopped and steered him away from the shields room and the scene of the crime. 

“Hey, did you turn the lights back on?” Jason asked.

Leo nodded and responded, “Two blackouts and oxygen in the same down. NASA has some shit to explain.”

“I’m sure they didn’t expect any murders to happen either,” he joked.

They laughed and Jason led them into the storage room, hoping to take Leo the long way to the cafeteria and avoid passing the Admin room altogether. Unfortunately, a sudden meeting was called and Leo rushed ahead of him towards it, luckily not bothering to look into the room he passed.

When he and Leo entered the room, Piper glared at Jason with so much hate, he had to admit that the hairs on his arms stood. Annabeth walked in from one side and asked Piper to explain why she called the meeting.

“I saw Jason leaving through a vent in the room I found Hazel’s _body,”_ she spat in Jason’s direction. “He left her for dead.”

“What?” Nico said weakly when he walked in from the other side of the cafeteria. “Hazel?”

They all turned to see Nico’s face shift from complete misery to utter hatred that battled Piper’s expression. Nico advanced to Jason, pushing Leo aside, and grabbed him by his collar. Their height difference didn’t matter when Nico pulled him down to look him directly in the eyes. His voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.

“Did you kill my sister?” He glared at him and Jason said nothing, unwaveringly meeting Nico’s gaze.

At the lack of response, Jason was dragged away from the cafeteria, down the corridor of Admin, through the storage room, and shoved on top of the unopened chute. The others followed Nico without a word and let him take Jason to be put outside. Nico stepped back and stood beside the rest of the crew as they all stared Jason down. It almost felt like Jason was the only traitor onboard. 

Leo was the only one that had the nerve to look uneasy about the whole thing.

“So I’m guessing Jason’s being thrown out…” he assumed. “Can’t we at least wait till Frank finds us?”

Annabeth disagreed as Jason shifted on his feet. “I don’t think Frank is going to be joining us anymore, Leo. Why don’t you tell him what happened to Frank?” Not once did she take her eyes off Jason.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Annabeth?” Jason shrugged casually. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

“That's sick, Jason, even for you,” Piper stated.

“No, you know what’s sick? How you all threw out Percy without a second thought. At least with me, you saw something. You killed him too,” Jason gestured to them all, “and we got nowhere.”

She shook her head. “This is different and you _know_ that.”

Jason just walked to the switches to open the inner hatch himself and stepped inside willingly. “Is it? Tell me, Piper. Is throwing someone innocent out into space any better than what I did?”

He watched as Piper began walking towards him with her clenched fists shaking before Annabeth held her back and whispered something to her with a shake of the head. Piper stepped back to stand next to Nico, both of them wanting to maintain the distance with Jason so neither of them strangled him and stooped to his level.

Annabeth made eye contact and said, “Yes, Jason. It’s very different.”

With that, she asked Leo to control the chute and Jason ducked his head to sit down. There wasn’t much left to do. Above him, a muffled voice told him that he had five seconds before the outer hatch opened and Jason remained quiet, letting Leo count down to one.

He did what he could and now it was up to his partner to finish the job.

* * *

Piper tenderly asked them all to start moving away from the storage room and Annabeth let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Watching the chute open for them to find nothing wasn’t something anyone could take lightly.

Nico and Leo walked a distance behind them, the sounds of their feet echoing on the metal floor and the hum of the ship’s engine filling the silence none of them wanted to break. On the seemingly endless walk back to the cafeteria, the lights turned off for the third time that day.

“Oh, for the love of-” Leo groaned and sighed. “Whatever. I’m gonna go fix it. Stay together, I’ll be two minutes.”

Annabeth nodded before remembering no one could see her. “Go ahead. Meet us in Cafeteria when you’re done.” He hummed in agreement and the noise of his footsteps receded from the corridor. “Let’s go, guys.”

They continued trudging their way down the hall and once Annabeth felt the walls of the corridors open up to a larger space, she heard Piper gasp.

“A-Annabeth, where are you?” she whimpered.

Straining her eyes when she turned around, Annabeth blindly reached for her shoulders and answered, “I’m right in front of you, Piper. Why? What’s wrong?”

“I think,” Piper breathed before Annabeth felt her body slightly pushed forward. She took this opportunity to whisper, “N-Nico.”

Once the lights turned back on, Annabeth stood face to face Nico who still held the knife into Piper’s back. She inhaled sharply as she felt Piper let out a shaky breath, struggling to stay on her feet. There was a moment when they just looked at each other, knowing that it would come down to the two of them. Nico broke the stare when the two heard Leo’s footsteps getting closer to the cafeteria’s entrance.

“Shit,” he swore, and before Annabeth could process his movements, Nico had ripped out the knife and hit Piper’s head with it, knocking her out completely. Piper was tugged away from her arms and the knife clattered on the floor next to her as Nico dropped it.

Flipping Piper’s body to face Annabeth, Nico forced himself to fall to the ground with the deadweight of the Piper and began crawling away hurriedly, acting scared for his life. Annabeth felt so angry that Nico was framing her that maybe he should be.

Leo chose that exact second to step into the corridor.

Nico dragged himself backward until he hit the legs of Leo, leaving Annabeth at one end of the hall with the body. She knew entirely how this looked, and it wasn’t good.

“Leo…” Annabeth started.

She watched as Nico stood up and behind him, saying, “Annabeth just stabbed Piper in front of me.”

Annabeth glared at him and stepped towards them, Nico stepping back and pulling Leo with him. “Leo, _don’t_ listen to him. He’s framing me. It was him the whole time.”

Her crewmate alternated from looking at Nico, Piper’s body, and Annabeth herself. Leo kept returning to Piper, stuck between running to help her and dejectedly knowing she was already gone. His expression flipped to grim determination to find out what happened.

“Annabeth, you’re standing over her body…”

She expected that. It was hard to deny the facts that lie blatantly in front of him, and Annabeth braced herself to debate her own innocence. “The only reason that Nico isn’t standing right next to me is because he _moved,_ Leo. Don’t let that be the only reason I’m thrown out.”

Nico scowled from behind him and burned holes into her skull with a glare. His tone of voice did not match the look he gave her as he shakily said, “Leo, she was so eager to throw Percy out. They were the ones who found Luke’s body from the very beginning. She’s doing the same thing here…”

Hearing Nico accusing her of killing the person she joined the crew with made her livid and she felt her hands shake at the thought. “I didn’t kill Luke _or_ Piper, you asshole. I cannot believe you’re trying to blame me for this. Piper has trusted me and helped me move past Luke’s death. I wouldn’t be surprised if you killed him too.”

Leo examined her keenly before turning to look at Nico, whose face changed to fear and grief when he saw Leo’s head start turning. “Nico, why would she kill the only person that trusted her?” Annabeth watched Leo take a small step away from him.

“She killed her because it’s easier to accuse me,” he defended with a shake of his head. “Annabeth has been doing this the whole time.”

Like the Devil sitting on his shoulder, Annabeth watched as Nico fed Leo lies.

“Jesus, that’s why Annabeth was so eager to kick Percy out,” Nico said, looking distraught. 

Annabeth crossed the corridor and reached out for Nico before Leo got in her way. Gritting her teeth, she pointed out, “You were just as on board with throwing him out. In fact, you have been just as quick to toss people out, if not more than any of us on board.”

“Because Jason killed my sister and I trusted you about Percy.” Nico had the audacity to look hurt from behind the protection of Leo’s arm.

She scoffed. “You have this all planned out, don’t you? I can’t believe this…”

“And it’s my fault that you don’t? I’m trying to stop you from killing us.” Nico held her gaze before she broke it to look at their last crewmate.

“Leo?” Annabeth asked. She needed to know what he was thinking, hoping that it wasn’t anything that approved of her guiltiness.

He only sighed and told them to go back to the storage room. Once they arrived, Leo stood next to the chute and stated, “Annabeth, I haven’t been following you around, so I can’t say for sure it’s you, but every time I wasn’t with you, someone has died.”

Defending herself once more, she blanched. “But Nico-”

“Nico,” Leo cut off, “is someone that I can at least vouch for. He has had an opportunity to kill me, and he didn’t.”

She should have seen it coming. Talking her way out of it just isn’t an option anymore. With Leo’s resolute stance of Nico’s innocence and Nico’s allegations, the decision seemed to have been made itself. Looking between the two of them, she wondered if this is what Percy saw when they all blamed him.

Leo opened the chute. “I don’t want to force you inside, so can you... I’m sorry.”

As Annabeth stepped inside, she faced them and said, “Congratulations, Nico.”

Nico gave her a hollow stare and emotionlessly uttered, “You gave me no other choice.” And Annabeth had to look away and crouched below the chute’s opening, allowing Leo to close the inner hatch.

Both she and Nico knew that he took away all her options the second the knife hit Piper’s back.

* * *

Nico nearly threw off his headphones once the words _VICTORY_ showed brightly on his computer screen and all of his friends unmuted their microphones to yell at Leo’s last vote.

 _“Leo,”_ Percy complained loudly. “How did you fall for Nico’s lies _again?”_

Leo sputtered as he answered, “You’re only saying that because we voted you off first and you already knew that Nico was Imposter, bitch. You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Nico’s lies and the truth either.”

Everyone laughed at Percy’s lack of response and they all began talking over each other again. They commended Jason and Nico’s double kill and told him that he was too good at this game. Annabeth pointed out that it’s practically always her, Nico, and Leo that stay in the game the longest, whether the three were the imposters or not.

“Yeah,” Nico agreed, “because everyone in this call is shit at lying.” They all turned on him and listed their own complaints.

“Oh shut up, di Angelo, you didn’t even wanna play,” Percy said.

“And you still keep losing, what about it?”

“How can you be so good at a game you barely play?”

Snickering at Percy’s question, he answered, “Because I play to win and Among Us is a game where you need to betray your friends to do just that.” He teased him. “You should be better at this, Jackson.”

Luke groaned, noisily cutting Percy’s rebuttal off and asking, “Can we start a new game now? I’ve been killed _first_ two rounds in a row and I haven’t been Imposter yet.”

His request was lost in the sea of voices still protesting that last game. Jason turned up the volume on his microphone and thanked Nico loudly for giving him a win. Each person told Jason that he did nothing to help Nico in the slightest and the tide turned against him.

“Jason is so bad, I swear,” Frank claimed. “Dude, Piper and I both saw you vent at the same time. How are you that bad?”

Nico just scoffed. “Imagine how I felt when I saw him for a teammate.”

“Hey!” he exclaimed. “I killed Reyna and got away with it, that counts for something.”

When they all acknowledged the kill, Reyna spoke up and said, “And I hate you for that. Next round, if I’m imposter, you’re the first to go, Grace.”

Nico heard Hazel chirp up at the mention of Jason being targeted and decided to join them. “Are we not going to talk about how Nico threw Jason under the bus so easily?”

Jason got behind Hazel’s words. “Yeah, let’s talk about that. What the heck, man?”

“Don’t take it personally, dude.” Leo laughed. “If you’re smart then you would too. Everyone was clearly going to vote you off. Voting for anyone else would be sus.”

As Jason mumbled a disappointed _whatever,_ Annabeth said that she was going to start a new round. Everyone agreed and began settling down, threatening each other one last time before muting their own microphones. Just as Nico was reading on his own tasks, someone spoke.

“Finally… Okay, I gotta kill Jason first so they think Reyna-”

Annabeth unmuted to scold, “Mute your damn mic, Percy.”

“Oh shi-” And Nico’s headphones go quiet.

There were about ten seconds before a meeting was called and for everyone to vote Percy with no mercy as he sheepishly tried to convince them to let him live for one more round.

**Author's Note:**

> alternative title: what if i was given free will and zero (0) rights?
> 
> i want to put out a **disclaimer:** no, i don't hate any of the characters i killed off, even when you saw that it wasn't real anyway. this was all for plot purposes and to satisfy my weird obsession with pjo characters playing among us.
> 
> come yell at me on twitter [@soiopercy](https://twitter.com/soiopercy) :)))
> 
> bonus scene: [percy's thirty seconds](https://twitter.com/soIopercy/status/1311038615863005184?s=20)


End file.
